Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(A bov e) Early o n . Ashmead (1 8). Haney (15). Orlando; Gray. Adamo (14). Quarterley. Barry (16); (below) Hernon (11). Bettencourt (8) and Pietri (4). 8 th e pair had $20 left a nd a huge partson-credit bill running wit h Honda; everything depended on Hernon who qualified 12th behind Pietri a nd ahead of Jeff Haney :"" finishing in the money. A few privat eers were backed by well -organized and relatively wellfinanced efforts , like Dr. Mac Archer 's En trop y Rac in g , w hic h fielded Haney's VF750F; o the rs had support o n a sma lle r sca le, lik e John Ash m ead 's VF750F with back in g from Peter Brady' s Bi-Star Racing , T eam Ontario a nd On tario Mota T ech. For m ost privateers, d reams of top fini shes h inged on so me thi ng going wrong for the team men with fas ter bikes; for every body exce pt Freddie Spe ncer: a ny ho pe o f winning h ad to include problem s for Spencer. T eam Honda planned on rear wh eel cha n ges for Spencer and Merkel to deal with tire wear fro m their expec ted fast lap tim es. Yosh imura would be ready for a whee l cha n ge in case Schwantz could hang onto Merkel but in th e process used up hi s Suzuki 's rear tire before th e finish . But most planned o n running 200 miles on o ne rear tire, a real istic aim a t lap times slo wer th an 2:00 or 2:0 1. It was th e same a t pre-ra ce pl anni ng sessio ns for gas stops; Honda pl anned two , Yosh imura three on th e GS th anks to its sma lle r tank. Ada mo and tuner Ren o Leon i th o ught th e Cagiva cou ld go th e dista nce with o ne stop; there was a cha nce Filice's FZ750 co u ld do it with o ne stop, too. All th e pl anning was hi story wh en th e gr een fla g finall y fell for the sta rt ; Sch wantz didn 't make it to th e fir st co rner before h is bike's cl u tch was gone ; Merk el di d a little bett er with h is cooked clutch ; McDonald bett er still. And th e m an o ut front , incred ibl y pulling a co u p le o f seco nds even before rea ching the end of th e infield and entering th e banking, wa s Wes Cooley. Just 14 days before th e sta rt , Cooley had n o Superbike ride for Daytona with no prospects. Just si x da ys before th e start, he had never ridden a Honda Interceptor ; in practice h e found th at th e bike worked quite differentl y th an the in lin e Suzuki and Kawasak i Superbikes of h is experience, and he discovered th e H onda VF750F tenden cy to mi ss shi fts and j u m p o ut of gea r a t hi gh rpm unless th e rider moves th e sh ift lever very positively a nd firml y - Honda p ilot s from Spen cer h im self down wo u ld fin ish th e race with reports o f m issin g shi fts an d ca tchi ng false neutral s a nd gear-jumpin g ; but to Cooley, it was a ll news. N o matt er. H e wa s in fron t , McDonald and hi s FZ second, (Spe ncer wo u ld lat er rem ark to th e p ress at h is su rp rise th a t McDo nal d 's bike was so fast , describing it as beingthe fastest bike on th e track at th a t p oint of th e race) Spe nce r a nd Fili ce and H ernon behi nd. Unti l Spe nce r started to move, passing McDona ld . catchi ng Cooley in the in fiel d on th e th ird lap ; rocketin g past on th e ba n ki ng at wh a t Cooley would later say looked lik e a speed five or six mph fa ster than h is ow n. Cool ey is a rea list. He kn ew Spencer 's bi ke was much [aster th a n his ow n, he said la ter, and he knew he co u ldn' t bea t Spe ncer un less some act of fate intervened, unless Spencer had bad lu ck . Cooley would have to stick to hi s ga me pl a n , run h is o wn pace, wa it for so meth ing to happen . And whi le Cooley p u lled away from the n ow-fierce ba ttl e between McDonald a nd Bett en court a nd Hernon , th e race for first pl a ce seeme d run . And the n Spe ncer wa s wa vin g Cooley past in the in field, cru ising around and headin g into th e pits. Cooley was lead in g again; h e th ought Spencer was fin ished ; so sus pec ted Spe ncer h im self. Spencer wou ld afterwards descr ibe to the p ress ho w h is bike began to m isfire, lost a cyli nder; h e th ought a valve had dropped , looked beh ind for a telltal e strea m of smoke but saw nothin g. By the ti me he reached th e back-strai ght chicane a n d tr ied accel era ti ng h ard agai n, th e bike h ad cu red itself - a lth o ug h H onda's m echa ni cs wo u ld report th at Spencer's bike started vib rating more than normally a t th e tim e th e mi sfire appeared. Spencer pulled into th e pits; th e mech an ics look ed fo r oi l leaks or p roblems and found none and sent Spe ncer back out, now two minutes behind Cooley and out of the top 20 in the ra ce. The dilemma for Spencer wa s now to find th e bal ance between ch arging hard enough to ca tch Cooley withou t running so hard that th e rear tire bli stered or ch u n ked or sim p ly wore out too qu ickl y. At thi s p oint, Spen cer was th e on ly rider who had to worry abo u t tire p robl em s; h e a lo ne co u ld run fa ster tha n th e availa ble tire tech nology co u ld handle; he alone had to walk th e line between not fast enough an d too fast. . Spencer's stop put Hernon in seco nd pl a ce, a bo u t 12 seco nds behind Coo ley, a h eady p lace for a 20-yearo ld in hi s second yea r of S uperbike ra cing. H e was pursued by a long string o f better-known or equall yhung ry rid ers, a ll p assing a nd stuffing and draftin g eac h o ther, the order cha ngi ng by th e lap or th e corner a nd never staying co ns ta nt for lon g. T here were II rid ers in th at string, a ll wantin g to be wh ere Hernon was or better, includin g McDonald , Betten co urt , H aslam , Pi etri, McMurter, Haney, Ashmead, Fil ice, H arth, and Grav. O rlan do had been in the re, but enco untered shock p roblem s an d faded back towar ds anot her battle in volv ing Q uarterl ey, Oliver a nd Adamo . T he order lis ted above wa s ho w it was at tu rn four o n the six th lap ; a few la ps lat er Haney a nd McDonal d were ahead of H ernon , Bettencou rt , McMurter and Ash mead; ano the r lap and H an ey was seco n d , leadin g McM u rt er, Betten court, Ash mead , H asla m , Hern on, Pietri. Gra y, Fil ice, Ha rt h a nd th e no w-slowi n g McDo na ld , h is clu tch having give n up for good . By th e 10th lap Cooley had 15 seco n ds a n d H aney was a lo ne in seco nd. Hasla m wa s in third , racin g McMurter ; Bett en cou rt , Ash m ead , Fil ice, G ray, Hernon and Piet ri were ha ving th eir own race [or fifth . But th at race forfifth thinned out qu ickl y, wh en Hernon, so hot for success , stuffed h is H onda u ndernea th Gray entering the fi nal inf ield turn , got co m p letel y sideways directl y in fro nt o f G ra y's Su zuk i's front wh eel, a n d was hit broadsid e by Gray. Both crash ed, G ra y fl ying ove r th e co ll ided bikes a nd breaking hi s collarbo ne; Pietri slid on liquids sp illed by th e collision and cras hed, low-siding; he'd tak e off again after finall y getting help bump-starting his bike from a corner worker. By th e 15th lap Cooley had 17 secon ds; Haney, in second place, had a n ot h er seven secon ds on Haslam, who wa s fiv e seco n d s ahead of McMurter with Fil ice close behind. Ashmead and Bettencourt still battled, and th e next man behind th em was one Freddie Spencer, ga in ing fast. Cooley's pl an called for 2:02 or 2:03 lap times; he was turning consistent 2:03s and 2:04s - and Spencer wa s ga in in g by several seco nds a lap, two th is time, three th at tim e, so me times fo ur or five seco n ds a t a ci rcu it. H e'd already worked past Harth a nd th e du eling Quarterley, Ad am o a n d Oliver. Just as quickl y he wa s in . sixth , th en fourth, th en third, th en seco n d with II seco nds separating h im from th e lead. Cooley p itted o n la p 26 [or gas, spe nt nine seco nds, and re-entered th e tra ck still leading. In one lap Cooley's lead fell from five secon ds to 1.9 seco nds, a nd then Spence r was past. Immediatel y th e tra ck a n nou nce rs got into an o n-the-air d isagreem ent regarding Spencer's pos itio n. AMA scorin g sa id Spen cer was a lap down , a n no u nce d Dave Despain . But as ' soon as Desp ain sa id th a t and descri bed Cooley as th e leader, Rox y Rock wood came on th e loudspeakers, say ing Spe ncer wa s th e leader. It went back a n d forth lik e th at for maybe five laps - 10 minutes -until the o fficia ls decided it was a ll a m ista ke and Spence r was leadi ng. . Bu t seei ng as the lighted scoring towers changed wi th th e whims o f th e o fficials , it was co n fusi ng to th e rid er s. Spe ncer lat er told reporte rs he co u ld see th e to wer as h e exi ted th e ( Co n t i n u ed 10 page 16)

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